The Art Of Doing Nothing Productive: 8 Brilliant Ways To Feel Content Without Constant Achievement
VH-studio | ShutterstockThere are plenty of people who struggle to be truly happy while doing nothing. As a result, we tend to over-work and exhaust ourselves. It's as if there are only two choices: be lazy or be productive.
In reality, there is plenty of gray area between these extremes and you don't need to overachieve to earn your rest. To get started, try these rest-work hybrid practices to find your perfect middle ground.
Here are 8 ways to feel content, even when you're doing nothing productive:
1. Spend Monday morning drinking coffee checking your to do list
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How many of us start work while we eat breakfast, before doing anything else? You probably know it isn't the best idea out there. After all, eating while distracted can lead to overeating or reaching for unhealthy foods. Still, perfectionists can't stop. You feel like you're unproductive if you aren't multitasking.
Instead of diving strait into work, try drinking your Monday morning coffee checking your to-do list and stopping there. Is it an adjustment? Yes, but it isn't impossible.
The goal is to be able to sit quietly while eating, chat with a friend or even watch a little TV but changing habits takes time. The more you practice, the easier it'll become.
2. Read without trying to finish a certain number of pages
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We all know reading is good for you. Besides expanding vocabulary and communication, reading reduces stress, anxiety, and muscle tension. But once you start reading trying to finish a certain number of pages all those benefits are minimized. You see, reading should be for enjoyment.
Sometimes we have to read for school or work or in order to learn something, and you may need to set goals there. But try to find a book you can enjoy reading and read it purely for fun. It doesn't just ease your anxiety, it teaches you to enjoy something without feeling the need to accomplish anything.
3. Take a walk without tracking your steps or calories
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Walking is incredibly healthy for our bodies and our mental health. The benefits are absolutely wild for something so relatively simple.
You might want to be the healthiest version of yourself, but don't become hyper-fixated on the numbers game. The art of doing nothing productive means sometimes going in with no expectations. That's why you should try walking without tracking your calories or steps (at least some of the time!).
I know it's an adjustment, but it's necessary. As a perfectionist, you've got to take care of your mental health and walking is the best way to get there, as it lowers the risk of anxiety and depression. Tracking your steps is a great idea if it helps you raise your steps count or feel accountable. But remember, your well-being is about a lot more than just achieving a numerical goal!
4. Watch an entire movie without doing anything else
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If you're like me, this sounds incredibly uncomfortable.
Every time you watch a movie, you're doing something else. Washing clothes? Check. Cooking dinner? Double-check. Sorry, some of us don't know how to relax without actually doing something. That's why we need to develop the habit of watching an entire movie without doing anything else.
Relaxing isn't just for fun. It's for your mental health. Especially if you have a highly stressful life, you need to sit back and unwind. So, the next time you watch a movie, try to spend a certain portion without doing anything else. If that feels completely impossible, start small: do something that doesn't require you to get up and walk around, like folding laundry or knitting.
And whatever you do, don't open a second screen! Watching two screens at once may feel like a good idea in an impulsive moment but it skyrockets stress levels. Trust me, I've done it, too.
Sitting still and focusing on one screen might feel hard, but the more you do it, the more content you'll feel.
5. Leave a few hours of your weekend completely unscheduled
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If you have a hard time truly relaxing you probably schedule pretty much everything, even on the weekend. It doesn't matter how small it is. This can be pretty overwhelming, but leaving it all up in the air probably sounds way worse.
That's why you need to master the art of leaving a few hours of your weekend unscheduled. Not the whole weekend, don't worry. Ease into it by blocking out three hours on Sunday morning or Saturday night to truly relax. Watch a movie or just go with the flow. But don't work!
It'll break your heart, but remember that lying in bed is also productive. Neuroscience research has found that downtime activates the brain's default mode network, which supports creativity, memory consolidation, and problem-solving. So, the next weekend that happens, take a breather. Your brain will thank you.
6. Go to bed early instead of staying up to finish tomorrow's tasks
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I know how tempting it can be to try to get ahead on tomorrow by staying up late. But unless you have to miss part of tomorrow's workday, staying up late is not actually making you more productive anyway.
Let's face it, going to bed early isn't easy when you're a highly productive person. In your eyes, it's comforting to be busy busy busy. But going to bed early instead of working late has some serious benefits that (gasp!) might actually make you more productive tomorrow.
As the Sleep Foundation said, "Shifting a late sleep schedule earlier may benefit mood, daytime alertness, and physical and mental performance." So, if you really want to be productive, get your shuteye in. You'll probably be more productive anyways.
7. Leave the dishes until tomorrow and enjoy the rest of your evening
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For people like us, few things are worse than going to bed knowing there are dishes in the sink. It doesn't matter how late it is or how busy life gets, you can't sleep until you've put the dishes away. You know they can wait until tomorrow, but your anxiety gets the better of you.
Here's the thing: going to bed with clean dishes is a great habit and practice. You're not wrong. It prevents waking up to a stinky kitchen or bugs. But as a practice, leaving a few dishes in the sink when you go to bed can help you learn how to be content without constant achievement.
Doing it once in a blue moon won't hurt anyone, especially if it's not a particularly messy night.
8. Work out four or five days a week instead of seven
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Everyone knows that exercising is important. It doesn't just make you look good. It drastically improves your mental and physical health. Still, being consistent is hard. People are either too busy or unmotivated to exercise seven days a week. Next thing they know, they're doing zero exercise at all.
For highly productive people, there's a fear that if they don't workout six or seven days, they'll just completely flake out and stop. Too often that means staying up too late trying to fit in a workout or skipping lunch to go to the gym on your lunch break instead.
Perfectionists always try to overdo it, but pushing yourself can leave you more stressed than motivated. So, take it easy and start small. Plan for four or five workouts and let your body relax and recover on the other days. Fitness-wise, this is just as good for your body, as long as you're getting your 150 minutes of movement in.
Marielisa Reyes is a writer with a bachelor's degree in psychology who covers self-help, relationships, career, family, and astrology topics.
